Reducing unnecessary urine culture testing in residents of long term care facilities
### What you need to know An older woman with moderate stage dementia living in a long term care home has new confusion and slurred speech. Her nurse notes an “unusual smell” while collecting a urine specimen and sends it for culture testing to the microbiology laboratory. The care home physician is notified that afternoon of the clinical finding and performs a focused examination, which is unremarkable, and then signs off the urine culture order. The urine culture returns with significant growth of Escherichia coli and the woman is prescribed a course of antibiotics. Five days later, she ...
Source: bmj.com
